Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Tony only just noticed the boy who was down between two cars. He was watching the traffic and waiting. For a moment, he thought that the kid was going to jump out and in front of the car that was speeding down the street.

It was warmer now, but it didn't make the clothes that the kid had on any less appropriate. He was wearing a white tee shirt that had seen better days. Not that it was too dirty, but it was worn in places that showed more skin than it did in keeping the kid covered. When he looked as if he was going to jump again, it was all he could do not to reach out and grab him by his too-large jeans.

"Nah, you don't want to use that car." The boy nearly fell into the traffic and only just barely got back to his place. When he turned and glared, Tony just grinned. "You're going to need a newer car. That way, you can be sure that they'll going to be able to replace the car when you're killed. No, it's better to use a new one."

"What do you know? I might have a ball in the street or something." Tony didn't bother pointing out that he didn't even have any shoes on, but the kid seemed to get it. "Things are tough. All over."

He'd heard that from some adult, he'd bet when telling him that they couldn't afford anything much anymore. Tony had seen that time and time again around here. Things really were tough. But killing himself wasn't going to solve anything, he told the kid.

"You have no idea." He turned his back on him and watched the cars. "That was a good idea that you had about cars. I wouldn't want my parents to have to pay for a new car, too, after I'm gone."

"The next car is Mrs. Weddle. She's like ninety-three. If you jump out in front of her, you could kill her, too. She's one more heart attack away from pushing up daisies as it is now." The kid nodded. And stayed where he was. "What makes you think that being dead is better than being alive? Things will turn around. I don't know when, but they will."

Without turning, the kid answered him. "My dad has been out of work for almost three years. My mom lost her job at the diner when they closed up last week. Something about not having the right foods anymore. I think my mom cooks the best food in the world but some people just don't care for comfort food anymore." He told him that he'd not known that the diner had closed down. "The post office is trying to get that place closed down too. She told her boss that it was stupid for her to be paid by mailing out one envelope a week. At least she's getting paid."

"That is true." He told him about the next three cars. One of them being his wife. "She'd beat your butt if you didn't get killed. Then she'd hug the stuffing out of you. If I were you, I'd not let any of my family hit you. It wouldn't end well for you."

Although he thought that it might end very well for the boy. His family would take them in, and they'd never have another worry. But he needed to talk to this boy to figure out why he thought that jumping under a car would solve his worst problems.

"My dad, I heard him telling my mom that he was better off dead for them. That got me to thinking that there was just one too many people to feed. And if it was me, instead of my dad, then things would be all right for them. I had to think on this powerful hard, Mr. Griffin. I have me a little sister at home now, and I do love her." Tony congratulated him on the birth of his sister. "Thanks. She's a tiny little thing. Cries sometimes late in the night, but she's all right. I love to feed her the bottle. For such a little thing, she can empty one faster than I can count to a hundred."

The boy, his name was Cody Banks, he knew now wasn't watching cars. Tony wasn't going to take the chance that he'd changed his mind, so he kept a good eye on him. When his mom came and sat with him, he told her through their link what was going on. She promised him that she'd not say anything to Cody.

"Did you come around this morning and get those apples that I wanted you to take to the pig farm, Tony? If you were busy this morning, you should have told me. I would have found someone else. They probably could have used the ten dollars more than you anyway." Cody stood up and moved over to where the two of them were. "Well, hello, young man. I didn't see you there."

"Mrs. Griffin, I can take care of those apples for you. Mr. Arbon said that pigs will eat anything, including people." Mom told Cody that she'd be happy for him to take them as Tony was too busy watching the streets. "How many bags do you have? I bet you made some delicious jelly with them. Mom says you make the best apple jelly from them worn-out apples of anyone she knows."

"Thank you, Cody. That was very sweet of your mom. While you're at the house, make sure that you pick up a couple of jars of it. There some—oh, I have so many things scattering around in my brain that I have to get done. Would you mind working for me? I don't just mean today, but, well, all my workers are married now with kids, and it will fall on me to get the house looking good." He told his mom she was making him seem like a lazy ass. She laughed and told him that this was a good cause. That he should make his way to the Bank's home and figure something out there. Mom was still talking to Cody, guiding him away from the streets to her home. He'd have a pocket full of money before the end of the day and more than likely fixings for dinner. Tony loved his family so much.

The next family member that sat next to him was his baby brother Stone. He looked worn out. Asking him if he was all right got Stone looking up and down the street like he was being chased or something.

"Women are coming out of the woodwork after me. One of them actually told me that this is their last chance of snagging a wealthy husband in me, and they'll all clamoring to get a piece of me. Like I'm the prized cow or something." Tony laughed, and Stone told him that it wasn't funny. "Everywhere I go, there are a herd of them. Waiting with food in their hands. I know how to cook, damn it."

"It's part of that old saying. You know it. The way to a man's heart is through his stomach. That's what they're hoping for, that you'll pick them because of how well they cook." Stone told him that was stupid. "Yet here it is going on. When do you start school back up? I know that you've been on Spring break. Won't be too much longer will it? You'll be safe in the school. Right?"

"You'd think that. But no. They come there with the pretense of talking about their kid's grade. Ms. Marbel doesn't have kids, not only not in my class but even in school anymore. I tell you, it's like I have a target on my back when I go out." Tony laughed, and the two of them started down the street. "School is going to be out another week. We have too many school days left over, and they're wanting to use them. I don't know why that would be an issue, but the board said that we can't teach too many days or we'll get in trouble. I miss my four walls."

"I need some help. Not really help so much as I need advice. Harman asked me to look at a building that he's thinking of buying. He needs one for writing space. According to him, there is too much going on at home for him to write. I think that it's because he's forever chasing his wife around the house and forgetting about working. I do the same thing. That's why I no longer work from home. Too distracting." They both laughed, and Stone said he was actually looking forward to that someday. "She's out there. I swear it. And when she comes around, you're going to be knocked for a loop, and that will be the end of you being chased around by strange women."

The little house that he was thinking about for his brother would have been perfect for an elderly couple or one just starting out. It had two bedrooms, which was one of his requirements, and a kitchen. The other rooms, while they would be good for the space, he didn't really need them. As they walked around the room, Tony enjoyed the views from the windows, wondering if that would be a distraction, too. It would be for him.

"There's even cable running in here. I believe that its central heating and cooling is gas too. That'll be nice. I love gas heat. Gets my toes warm faster." Tony rolled his eyes at his brother as he went from furnace grate to grate, testing the heat coming from it. "I'm seeing if the heat is disturbed well. Like the ones over the furnace, will they be hotter while the rest of the house is cooler? You have to know these things."

"Yeah, sure. I'm sure that Harman is worried about getting too hot. As if any of us worry about that." Stone said that was a good point. "Moron. I have to admit that I do love this tiny kitchen. He can have a nice lunch made without having to travel home or out. Sometimes, I forget to eat when I'm working on a large project. Also and this might be me remembering wrong, but doesn't he have like a million books? They'd be nice all shelved up in the living room. Take up the carpet and put in wall-to-wall bookcases. In there, he'd even have someplace to sit and read them if he wanted."

Even though he'd not called his brother to okay the house, Tony decided that if Harman didn't like it, then they'd find someone else who could live in it. Visiting relatives would enjoy having a nice little place if they were visiting their families with a bunch of young ones. Getting away might be the difference of getting invited back next year.

Just as they were leaving, him having called the realtor to pull it off as a listed place, Harman joined them. And his shirt was on inside out. Stone got to point it out to him before he could, but he loved the embarrassed look on his brother's face.

Harman walked around the little house with them then. Both he and Stone pointed out the things that they'd thought of around. When he said that it would be perfect, Tony thought that his brother would be about moved in before the ink dried on the deed.

Going to three more buildings that he'd been looking at, his brothers Edwin and Garfield joined them. Jeffery, who had been working with something hush-hush, joined them at about the time they were making dinner plans. Tony knew that his wife was taking the kids to their favorite place tonight, and he would have had to eat alone. This was so much better.

"Why don't we call Dad. See if he wants to have dinner with his boys. I'm sure he's not too busy to do that." Edwin said that he'd call him and make sure that he came with them. Tony called the local restaurant and made the reservations for the seven of them. Tony told him that Harman was with Dad and that he was coming in. He couldn't remember the last time that Dad and his brothers had dinner together. This would be epic.

They were just being seated when Dad brought up the Banks boy. He was telling them that Mom had pushed him out of the house right in the middle of a project to have the boy do it.

"It wasn't as if I didn't want to do it. I was already nearly finished. Then she picked up my screwdriver that I was using to put the last screw in and took about half of them out. Women are a little bit of a screw loose, too, if you were to ask me." Tony laughed and told him what was going on. "He was going to kill himself? Well, that's a different can of worms altogether. The kid can only be about ten or twelve." Stone said that he was fourteen, and that got them all to thinking.

"I have an idea that when he overheard his father saying that he was worth more to them dead, he was thinking insurance. I'm betting right now that none of them have insurance now that they're out of work, too. I'll have my wife look into that for them." Tony thanked his brother for that. "No problem. I want to help, too."

The rest of the evening was spent talking about the changes around the town since it started growing up around them. The biggest change was the buildings. Of course, that would be it. Trees, too, that they planted along the main drag were so big that the county was thinking that one or two of them needed to be taken down, they were that old.

"Remember that old trading man? The one that would come around with his wares once or twice a month? I was in the cemetery the other day, Mr. Harper's momma died, and I was there for that, but I found his headstone. Got me to thinking about all the things that are different." Edwin asked if he'd been the man who had been kicked in the head by his horse. "It was my mule that kicked him, but yes, that's him. He couldn't be told what to do without some kind of backtalk. So when he went ahead and stepped into the street behind my mule, he was dead before he landed across the street. The reason that I bring that up is one of his daughters, Lilian June had herself seven daughters, remember them?" Every one of them groaned when Dad asked.

"There was never a group of women born that wasn't as homely as they were. Nor were that all that nice if I remember correctly. One of them was as big as me. Nearly seven feet tall. And hands? Good lord, they could pick up a grown man by reaching out and grabbing his head without any trouble. Why did you ask Dad?"

"I was contacted by one of her great-granddaughters the other day. She and her family want to come into town and have a memorial for the man who started it all. Old Taterhead Blue was his name. She asked me if I ever knew his first name, and it took me until today to remember it. Sebastian. Sebastian Blue. But he was called Taterhead for nearly all his life, I think. It's even on his headstone out there." They talked about more people that had gone through their lives after that. Trying, Tony thought, to outdo the one that had the best memory.

"Dad, tell the story about how Harman got his first name. I think that will top all the other stories." Harman looked at him and asked what he was talking about. "You were named after one of the biggest characters ever born. Just let Dad tell it. It's a good story.

"Well, now, let me think on it a bit. I want to get the story set like it was back then. Boy, oh boy, that was a deep memory for me. Hadn't thought of it in a long time. All right. I have it now. It was just before you were born, Harman."

~*~

Charlie could see it all in his mind's eye. The street hadn't had a good rain in a long time, so it was spitting up dust every time something blew over it. Just a mess, he told his sons, a right mess all the time.

"We'd get these little spurts of rain that would make it worse. Then, the dirty rain would stick to everything a person owned. Even the horses were sick of being dirty and dusty all the time. Then came along Wayne Harman. I think that was his name, wasn't it, Edwin?" He said that it was. "Had him a wife, too, but she didn't stay long. To this day, we don't know if she left town on her own or if Wayne sent her home. But she was just gone one day." Charlie had always thought, to himself, that he'd killed off his wife by accident one day, and that had been the end of her. "His clothing wasn't cleaned up anymore. That was the first clue. But she was just a tiny little thing. About five foot nothing and about as big around as my leg. I swear to you, I never seen a couple more opposite of each other than those two. Him a big honking man, and her this stick wife woman. Anyway."

Charlie still had bad dreams about what had happened that morning. He told his sons, not at all ashamed that he'd shed a few tears when Wayne had met his death. But before getting to that, he told them about how he'd become a character.

"He'd paint his face. Whatever suited him that day, he'd be all painted up and come into town on his little bitty horse. I swear I heard that poor pony sigh every time he would get on him and off. But he always had a carrot or two for it, and I guess it didn't mind so much." Dad laughed. "The day before he passed on, he'd come into town as a clown. Now, I want you to imagine about the ugliest clown you've ever seen just coming into town with his face all painted up white and a big nose. Didn't have a tooth in his head either. That sort of put some people off, but not the kiddies. They just loved him." Edwin spoke then.

"He always had a bag of some kind of treat, too. Sometimes, it would be a bit of rock candy that he'd made or a book with a couple of pages in it. It was terrible, just a few words, but Harman had made it him himself, and that was fun, too. One time, he had cotton candy. A treat that I'd never tasted before then." Charlie nodded, his memories of the things coming to him faster now. "I'm sorry, Dad. I didn't mean to interrupt your story."

"You didn't. You helped me remember some things. He made the cotton candy machine, too. And the way he would have it made over those hot flames would entertain us for days after he left us." Dad laughed then. "Never did he come into town empty-handed either. Even if it was just a few coins, pennies mostly that he'd hand out to the kids."

Smiling, he continued. He knew that it was a sad smile. He felt his hurt for the man all the way to his toes. Nodding, he continued talking about the man. A man that had become his friend the day he'd been killed.

"One day, he comes riding into town and has himself a string of ponies behind him. About twenty or so, all of them walking behind him like he was piped Piper. They were attached to each other. Nope, they were just following him into town like he was their leader. He found me coming out of the store and asked me if I needed some ponies. He told me that they would need to be around us a lot so they'd get used to our smell." Tony asked his dad if the town had known that they were wolves. "No. And I, to this day, don't know how he figured it out. Just asked me right out if I wanted any. So shocked was I that I nodded my head before I could think on it too long."

Charlie shifted on his seat whenever he thought about the next part. "He was a good man. Upstanding. I thought for a long time that he might well have killed his wife off. I still have thoughts like that, but not as often as I did back then. But Wayne, he was walking away from me, and he told the ponies, the first one, that they belonged to me from now on. And wouldn't you know it? They stayed right there with me like I was their new master or something."

"What happened, Dad?" He looked at the man's namesake and had to dust away a few tears then. "Dad, you don't have to finish it if it's going to upset you. We can move on."

"No, no. I want to tell you." Charlie cleared his throat before beginning again. "I had Edwin start to take the horses to the barn. But he was stopped by a group of men who thought they should have the ponies more than I did. I really would have given them to them had they only asked, but they didn't. Jumping on them and trying to get them to go home with them. Nary a one of them moved but looked at me, frightened and all."

A pony died that day. The man that had been seated on him had beat him to death because he wouldn't move. Another one had to be put down. He, too, had been beaten up so badly that there wasn't any coming back from it. He didn't tell the boys that. It hurt him to know the cruelty of some people.

"Wayne, hearing the ruckus, came back to see what was going on. One of the men in the crowd asked Wayne how he'd come to have such fine ponies. And then he asked him if he was some kind of wizard or something. He didn't know what that was and looked to me for help. So I told them that they'd have to explain what they were talking about as Wayne didn't know. The man who had asked didn't wait for an answer but picked up the closest thing to him and bashed Wayne over the head with a piece of firewood. Well, now, I told you he was a big man. Had a thick head, too, and all that log did was splinter in a few places and didn't seem to faze the big man. He was polite, even though there was a bit of blood going down his face that the man not hit him anymore. It hurt his head. Then he looked at me."

Charlie blew his nose hard. The tears were coming faster now, and he just didn't care. He'd told his sons all their lives that it was all right to show emotions when they got the better of you. And that's what was happening right now. His memories and thoughts were getting the better of him. Putting his handkerchief away, he began telling of that day again.

"Wayne picked up Edwin and Tony, set them right on those barebacked ponies, and sent them to the house. That's all he said to them, to the house. Once they were out of the way, the boys, not the ponies, all the men there turned on Wayne. I got myself beside him and pulled out my gun."

"You have to remember that not many people had guns back then. Nary a rifle, either. They made do with what they had, and a gun purchase would have cost them more money than they could use to eat on for the year. So I pointed my gun at the group of angry men and told them to back off. Then I made sure that they knew that I'd be working with them on the sale of the ponies if they still wanted one." Charlie looked beyond his sons and saw the street that day that it happened. "Mr. Hartman, he was the meanest man alive. I thought he said that he wanted Wayne to go and get him some fresh horses. I wasn't sure what he meant by that, but it wasn't the answer that he wanted. It was more than anyone had that day. Like I said, he was a mean person."

"You gave the ponies to Mr. Griffin. Why didn't you hand them over to me? I have me a nice ranch out there, and I would have given you top dollar for them. A man run down like you are, I'm betting that you could use some cash in your pocket about now." Wayne told him that he really didn't need the money that the earth provided him with everything that he needed. "Oh, so you're rich, are you. Tell me how much money you got on you, and I'll double it if you take me to get them ponies I'm wanting."

"I don't have any use for money, not much to speak of really, but the land and the earth, they provide me with all the things that I need. Apple trees. There was a peach tree out there, too, but I missed them growing. I put me a few vegetables in the ground early spring, and that's been—"

"I don't give a good damn about your gardening. I want you to show me how you got them ponies, and then you're going to go out with me and get me some more." Wayne had tried to explain that he'd not had anything to do with them coming to him. Most animals liked him. "So I'm guessing that a hare or something will bounce his way up on your table all cooked and everything when you're hungry."

"Now you're just being silly." The anger that had come over his face still scared him to this day. "How would it know how to cook himself?"

The knife came out of nowhere. It was still dangling from Wayne's chest when he reached out for Mr. Hartman's horse and took it to the ground. When it was obvious that Mr. Hartman was going to shoot him this time, Wayne reached down and snapped, just like it was no more than a bit of sticks, off his arm and threw it away.

"The townspeople just went mad after that. They ganged up on Wayne and beat him to death. Even after he was dead, they still kept up at it until it was difficult to tell that the mess on the street was a man." Charlie looked at Harman. "The clouds came out of nowhere and were just bursting with water; they filled the streets with water. As we all stayed there, still in shock at what had happened. The body of Wayne Harman was fading into the ground. Like he'd was being a part of the earth that he had loved all his life."

"What was he?" Harman asked Charlie again what the man had been. "Was he a faerie or something? For the earth to have taken him back, he had to be something special to someone."

"He was special to everyone he helped. And he did help a lot of people when he could." Charlie thought of something else while thinking about the man. "You're named after a great man, Harman, and if he were here now, he'd be proud to know that you've carried on his works with all that you do."

Charlie wanted to change the subject and was thinking that he wanted to let his sons know how incredibly proud he was of them. But before he could get the words out, the six of them said that they loved him very much and that they were proud to have him as not just their father but a great role model, too. His heart was full at that moment, and he was sure that he'd think about this night for the rest of his days. He still shed a tear or two of happiness that he'd been a part of raising such wonderful children.

Getting home a great deal later than he meant to, Charlie sat on the deck and watched the trees. Closing his eyes when a small spark appeared, he waited for the mother earth to join him. He wasn't the least bit surprised to see her then.

"You've been telling the story of Wayne again, haven't you, my dear friend? I bet you left out, as you usually do, that you were hurt too when the mob came after him." He said that it wasn't part of the story in talking about how Harman had gotten his name. "Perhaps not, but it showed me, once again, that a better man couldn't have been chosen to help the earth. Thank you for that."

"'Tis my pleasure, my lady. Forever." When she sat down, there was tea and cookies for the two of them. "I shouldn't indulge. I have a big day tomorrow and I'll be too full to enjoy the breakfast meeting that I'm attending."

He sipped his tea first and then took a couple of cookies. Charlie knew that they'd be his favorite and wasn't disappointed when he bit down on the first one. As they enjoyed their tea and cookies, not a word was said about anything so earth-shattering but the warm weather that they were enjoying.

After she told him of the things that she had in her life, he told her that they'd help her in any way that they could. Grace told him that she'd take him up on that and get back with him. Charlie made his way to his wife and bed just as the sun was cresting over the trees. He didn't need much sleep but knew that he was going to be extremely tired for the rest of the long day. But he couldn't have been a happier man than he was when Luna wrapped her warmer body around his and kissed him. Charlie thought again how lucky he really was.